House of Hummingbird(2018)

House of Hummingbird’ is a gift for every woman who has lived in Korea. This movie is the first one that describes growth of young girls. Although there are lots of growing stories of young boy, girl’s one is lacking. When I finished the movie, I felt sorry and then some questions popped out in my head. ‘Why the young girl’s growing story is sad compared with the boy’s one?’ Boys are grown with a glory and everyone’s blessing, but why are the girls growing in silence? As if her growth was natural.

 

 

Eunhee, middle school student who lives in Dae-Chi dong, is a main character of the story. This young girl lives in Korea in 1994. She thinks that school is boring and adults don’t care her. Eunhee has grown up and fought in her way under a patriarchal father, a violent brother, and an ordinary mother and sister. She’s got her own thought and lives in her own world. Everything that makes up her world is both complicated and incomplete, so she has no time to take care of people or problems around her. She could only concentrate on herself.

 

Youngji is the first adult who treats Eunhee as a person equivalent to a grown-up, but not just a kid. Kid’s voice is easily faded out by an adult. Adult thinks that kid is just a kid, so they don’t respect kids as adults. So the conversation between Eunhee and Youngji is meaningful for the young girl. When she was confused because of her own world — relationship problems and what not — this conversation was a shelter for her. Despite of complicated obstacle around her, she found a way to grow slowly but surely.

 

At the ending scene — the most favorite scene ever! — the camera is zoomed out from Eunhee’s face and fanned out to the whole playground widely. Eunhee focused on her school friends for the first time. Her school friends haven’t been invited in camera before the ending scene. Audience couldn’t see the school friends’ faces before. Ending scene visually shows the growth of a young girl. It’s a perfect growing story ever.

 

Back to the story, the occasions that Eunhee faced are common for female audience. I would say this movie is a condolence for women who spent childhood in Korea. In my opinion, Eunhee grew up in an ordinary family which was pretty well-off. The first scene of the movie already shows the fact I just mentioned. Eunhee knocked the door but there was no answer. Audience would guess that Eunhee did not grow up in a kid-friendly environment. While the audience worried, Eunhee realized herself that she was knocking the wrong door. Following the next scene, Eunhee went upstairs and knocked again. Then her mother greeted her tenderly. That is a cinematic device. Director notified that Eunhee was raised in an ordinary family rather than a poor one. So this movie is talking about an ordinary girl’s own trouble, confusion, relationship, and the growth.

 

 

‘Do you think everyone’s gonna feel sorry to us?’
It’s a line that Jisook said to Eunhee while she explained why there was a bruise on her face. I think that line is a main theme of the movie. The majority of adults thinks that is not necessary to care about young girls, even the girls have their own thoughts and faith. Despite that adult used to be a child, especially for young girls, the image of child is separated from the real young girls. Young girl’s images that are described on media so far are different from reality. Girls are aggressive and strong enough to punch a boy who irritates them. They struggle everyday with their own problems that are not only about boys but also friendship. We have to focus more on the story of young girls. There are lots of stories as many as the number of young girls. These attempts have been seen a lot lately — Netflix drama ‘Persona - Kiss Burn’ and movie, ‘The World of Us’. I expect to see more stories of girls on the screen in the future.